2009-10 job successes continue despite difficult economic situation.
UCSB History Ph.D.s continue to distinguish themselves on the academic job market, even in an economic situation that has resulted in the cancellation of many job searches.
As of May 3, 2010, 16 recent Ph.D.s or about-to-be-Ph.D.s have been offered and accepted professorships, teaching positions and post-docs (for information about dissertation research fellowships, see this separate News item.)
Nicole Archambeau has received a prestigious post-doc from the ACLS, which she will spend at Cal Tech. See our Feb. 2010 News item: UCSB History Ph.D.s win postdoctoral fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies.
Joseph Bassi (PhD 2009, History of Science) has been offered a full-time assistant professorship at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Steve Cory (PhD 2006, Middle East) received tenure at Cleveland State University.
Erik Esselstrom (Ph.D., 2004) received tenure at the University of Vermont in April 2010. He is director of the Asian Studies Program there. (UVM faculty page). Erik’s first book is Crossing Empire’s Edge: Foreign Ministry Police and Japanese Expansionism in Northeast Asia (U of Hawai’i Press, 2008). It explores the role of the consular police in the development of the Japanese empire in Korea and China from 1880 to 1945. (amazon.com page)
Mateo Farzaneh (Middle Eastern History) has accepted a tenure-track position at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. His dissertation, “Ayatollah Khorasani of Najaf and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911,” focuses on the life and times of a cleric who played a key role in the revolution and who called for reforms very similar to those advocated by current Iranian leaders such as former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and theologian Abdolkarim Sorush.
Karen Frank (Medieval European History) has accepted a tenure-track position at University of the Ozarks (Arkansas).
Sarah Griffith (U.S. Immigration History) will begin teaching at Willamette University in Fall 2010.
Bonnie M. Harris (Public History) is now a Religious Studies Professor for Online Instruction with BYU Idaho, in addition to teaching American History and World History at Community Colleges in San Diego County.
Anil Mukerjee (Ph.D. 2009) has accepted the position of a three-year Visiting Assistant Professor of Latin American History at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Bianca Murillo (Ph.D. 2009) has accepted a tenure-track position at Willamette University in Salem,Oregon, beginning Fall 2010.
John Munro will spend 2010-11 as a Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University.
Nadia Nader has been awarded a one-year post-doctoral fellowship for 2010-2011 in a major international competition “Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe” based in Berlin, Germany.
Jonathan Sciarcon (Middle Eastern History) has accepted a tenure-track position at the Center of Judaic Studies and Department of History at the University of Denver where he will teach Jewish and Middle Eastern history. Jonathan’s dissertation, “Between Baghdad and Paris: Narrative, Gender, and Social Change Among Iraqi Jews, 1864-1960,” will be submitted in August 2010.
Brandon Seto will begin teaching at Loyola Marymount in Fall 2010.
Ellie Shermer (U.S. History, Ph.D. 2009) has accepted a tenure-track position at Loyola University Chicago, however she will first spend an academic year as Mellon Research Fellow at Cambridge University in the UK.
Update 5/26/10: Ellie has won this year’s W. Turrentine Jackson Prize, offered by the Pacific Historical Review for the best article submitted by a graduate student. Ellie’s essay, written and revised when she was still at UCSB, is “Counter-Organizing the Sunbelt: Right to Work Campaigns and Anti-Union Conservatism, 1943-1958.” It appeared in February 2009.
Tanya Stabler (Ph.D. 2007, now tenure track at Purdue Calumet) will spend 2010-11 as a Mellon postdoc at Notre Dame University.
Leandra R. Zarnow, who will defend her dissertation in summer 2010, will spend the fall semester on a postdoc at the NYU Center for United States and Cold War History. She is also the winner of the Judith Lee Ridge Article Prize awarded by the Western Association of Women Historians for best published article, “Braving Jim Crow to Save Willie McGee: Bella Abzug, the Legal Left, and Civil Rights Innovation, 1948-1951,” published in Law & Social Inquiry. Leandra has also just published “From Sisterhood to Girlie Culture: Closing the Great Divide between Second and Third Wave Cultural Agendas” in No Permanent Waves, edited by Nancy Hewitt (Rutgers, 2010).
Dissertation Research Fellowships in 2010 — moved to a separate News item on 5/3/10
In 2008-2009, four UCSB History Ph.D.s accepted tenure-track positions, while others moved along their various career tracks. They included:
Josh Birk (Medieval Europe): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Smith College.
Mark Hendrickson (PhD 2004 Furner) is moving from Colorado State to a tenure-track position at UC San Diego.
Heidi Marx-Wolf (Ancient History): Assistant Professor, Department of Religion, University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada).
Travis Moger (Friesen/McGee) has a three-year appointment as instructor in history at the US Naval Academy.
Heidi Morrison (Modern Middle East): Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Wisconsin- La Crosse
Katie Sjursen (Medieval Europe): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
Danielle Swiontek (U.S. History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Santa Barbara City College
Additionally,
April Haynes is a 2009-10 Hench Post-dissertation Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society.
Bianca Murillo accepted a two-year position as a postdoctoral fellow in history at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, starting in fall 2009.
Jack Robinson now directs graduate education for Franciscan friars in San Antonio, Texas.
In 2007-2008, ten UCSB Ph.D.s accepted new tenure-track positions. They included:
Toshihiko Aono (International Relations): Sennin Koshi (equivalent to Assistant Professor with tenure), Law Faculty, Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo)
Jessica Chapman (U.S. Foreign Relations): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Williams College
Christopher (Chip) Dewell (East Asian History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Hiram College (OH)
Éric Fournier (Roman History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, West Chester University (PA)
Rudy Guevarra (Asian American History): Assistant Professor, Department of Asian and Pacific American Studies, Arizona State University
Carolyn Lewis (U.S. Women’s History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Louisiana State University
Maria Logrono (Middle Eastern History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Florida International University
Elizabeth Pryor (U.S. Women’s History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Smith College
John Sbardellati (U.S. Foreign Relations): Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada)
David Torres-Rouff (U.S. History): Assistant Professor, Department of History, Colorado College
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jwil 28.ii.2010, 05.v.2010; hm 3/30/10, 4/1, 4/4, 4/27, 4/28, 4/29, 5/3, 5/26, 5/30, 6/12, 6/17/2012